Norway - June 2023

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission shared a report with the parliament, detailing the Commission’s findings from a five-year study on the treatment of indigenous and minority groups, including Sámi, Kven, Norwegian Finns and Skog Finns during the “Norwegianisation” period, including interviews with survivors and their descendants. The report, commissioned by the parliament, concludes that the policy of forced assimilation known as Norwegianisation, resulted in losses of linguistic and cultural heritage of minority groups, which continues to have societal consequences and has led to several minority languages becoming endangered. The report contains recommendations towards reconciliation, including the establishment of a national competence centre on Norwegianisation policy and increased knowledge about the policy in schools and higher education. A public reading held in the National Theatre in Oslo was aired by public broadcaster NRK. The parliament will consider the report as a next step.

Sources: Stortinget, Foreign Policy, Library of Congress, UiT, NTB (1), NTB (2), NRK, Dagbladet